Remember how it was to learn how to ride a bike for the first time? As a child (and even as an adult!) sometimes it takes many times before we get the hang of it. Also, even though we still experience bumps in the road (quite literally while riding a bike) that takes effort to stick with it. It’s the same way with health goals. Pursuing health and diet goals gets frustrating, which is why we put together the Body Reboot book because we want to encourage people not to give up on their health goals! Everyone feels like giving up sometimes, but instead of living with that regret, why not decide to give a new diet and lifestyle a try? For example, a low carb diet known as the keto diet is helping many people shed weight experience many other benefits as well. Today in this article we show you how to keep pressing forward and how to make the decision to take control of your health once and for all because you’re worth it.

Just check out what Mind Body Green has to say about following through with your health goals. The author says setting an intention for your day is a great place to start as is stop comparing yourself to everyone else! The easiest way to bring yourself down is by comparing your successes to other people’s. Not a single person is going to have the same journey, so don’t you dare beat yourself up if your trip is different than anyone else's.

Set an intention for your day.

Every morning, take a few minutes to set an intention for your day. Write it down or say it in your head and recall it throughout the day. This simple practice allows you to center yourself, be present and have a purpose for the day. Here are a couple examples:

Today, I choose to nurture my body and soul with nourishing foods and kind words.

Today, I choose to live from a place of authentic truth and make choices that will brighten my spirit.

Stop comparing yourself to everyone else.

It’s human nature to look at our friends, the media and social networks and feel like we should be somewhere else in our life — following the new diet, joining the latest fitness class or having lost the weight already.

You are on your own journey. If you start comparing yourself to everyone else, you’ll become overwhelmed and frustrated. Quiet the outside noise and listen to your heart. You know you’re on the right path, and you’ll figure out how to stay on it.

Huffington Post advises to figure out what you really want. To go for it think long and hard about what you want. If you're going to lose weight by following a low carb diet think of how you can make that happen. And don’t make your goals too ambitious. Of course, many positive goals are a good thing — but your goals should be doable. Achieve small goals and slowly build up to more challenging ones.

Figure out what you really want.

Figure out your big, weight loss “why” before you even think about how to change your eating habits.

Ask yourself: What's your real reason behind wanting to drop those 50 pounds?

Using your meaningful, compelling “why” to drive you forward instead of relying on a “should” goal (“I should get healthier” or “my husband says I should lose weight”) is a crucial part of making your healthy habits stick, not slide.

Without meaning, you can't have momentum.

Change one thing at a time.

If you: Eat less, exercise more, go on a detox, take that fat-burning supplement your friend recommended, try that ketogenic diet everyone's raving about, cut out the cupcakes for good, count the calories of every morsel of food you put into your mouth, and weigh your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, you'll lose the weight faster, right?

Not really.

Why? Because you're likely setting yourself up for failure, says simplicity expert Leo Babauta in his book, The Power Of Less.

According to Babauta, trying to form multiple habits at the same time often results in a 100 percent failure rate.

The solution? Take a minimalist stance when it comes to change.

The most effective way of building new, healthy habits with a success rate of up to 80 percent is to simply focus on just one at a time, says Babauta.

Having the willpower to say no to tempting food is easier said than done, which is why WebMD recommends reminding yourself why your health journey is so important. Remind yourself what is at stake, forgive yourself when you make mistakes, and also control your environment. Here’s how to do that below:

Remind yourself what's at stake.
Herb Ketteler, a pest-control technician in suburban Cincinnati, has gone from 305 pounds to 210 in a little over a year. It's the second time he's lost a significant amount of weight. The first time, he kept it off for five years, but regained it after an injury kept him from exercising. The weight-loss medication Meridia helped him lose much of the weight this time, but he says he's remained motivated even after going off the drug.

Control your environment

Successful losers don't rely on willpower, Tallmadge tells WebMD.

“Fill your home with healthy, wholesome foods,” she says. “Have healthy foods in the refrigerator so you're less likely to stop and grab something greasy on the way home from work. Some people think they can have cookies in their home and use willpower. Then they get mad at themselves when they eat them.”

What if your family isn't dieting? You can still take control and keep tempting foods out of your kitchen, Tallmadge says: “If the family wants desserts, they can go to the ice cream shop for one serving.”

Forgive yourself.
Mihaly tells WebMD that she never refers to indulgences as slips. “When I spent two weeks in Morocco, I enjoyed the culture and cuisine. It wasn't a slip. When I indulge over the holidays, I call it enjoying the holidays.”

She applies the same principle to fitness. She's only begun exercising in the last couple of years, and she has progressed from struggling to walk a mile along Lake Erie to two or three miles.

“I've taken this week off exercise,” she says. “It's raining, and I'm getting ready for a street sale. I'm looking forward to next week, but tonight I'll be lazy and enjoy it.”

Are you focusing on things you can’t control? No matter the goal, it’s normal to get fixated on things you can’t control, but that’s not a healthy way to approach weight loss. Run the race while staying positive and focused on your goal. Only then The Medium says you’ll be able to follow through and stick to your health aspirations.

Run your race
As I’ve discussed before, comparing yourselves to others can make you miserable. It’s particularly harmful when you’re attempting to do something unconventional with your life.

In this scenario, you’ll find yourself behind your friends, family, and peers who are climbing up the ladder. If you do something unconventional there is no ladder and until you succeed it will look like you’re wasting your time when you could’ve done something safer. Best to just run your race at your own pace and ignore what everyone else is doing.

You chose your path for a reason and you have a vision for your life that no one can see as clearly as you. Trust your instincts and run your race at your own pace.

Focus on what you can control
Luck plays a role in success. Sometimes the ball won’t bounce your way. People will be unfair, unkind, and unworthy of your compassion at times.

You’ll get screwed over, passed up, and people who don’t work as hard as you may find more success in the short term. Knowing and accepting reality gives you the edge in the long run. People make life harder when they fail to understand how the world works. You can’t wish circumstances outside of your control will change. You can, however, teach yourself how to both understand and withstand the world you live in.

Weigh the pain of effort against the pain of regret
“I hated every minute of training, but I said ‘Don’t quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’.” — Muhammed Ali.
The pain of effort towards reaching your goals pales in comparison to the colossal heartache of regret. Whenever you feel like quitting, think of how it will feel to look back on your life and know that you gave up on something you truly wanted. Feel the pain of that regret now and use it as fuel for motivation, or suffer from it in reality for the rest of your life.

Are you ready to stick with your health goals? Don’t give up — there’s a community who wants to support and back you up! Want a free copy of the Body Reboot book?! Simply cover the cost of shipping and get a free book! Check out this page and find out whether we still have some copies of the book left.

Sources: Huffington Post, WebMD, MindBodyGreen, Medium The Startup